Delegates whose congressional districts voted for Donald Trump in the primary are not actually bound to voting for Trump at the convention, National Review writer David French says.

French, who recently considered an independent run against Trump, writes that the Republican party itself makes the rules, not states. So even though there are different sets of rules in how the state primaries are held, the delegates who attend the convention have the freedom to vote for whichever candidate they choose — regardless of who has the most votes after the primary season.

French examines the voting process at the RNC, which will be held in Cleveland from July 18 to 21. The 1975 Supreme Court case Cousins v. Wigoda, for example, ended with the high court ruling in favor of national parties being allowed to govern themselves, not states.

French then cites the Republican party's Rule 38, which reads, "No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state or Congressional district to impose the unit rule. A 'unit rule' prohibited by this section means a rule or law under which a delegation at the national convention casts its entire vote as a unit as determined by a majority vote of the delegation."

There has been talk for months of the party trying to replace Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee, with someone else. Trump has, however, earned a record number of votes in the primary season — more than 13 million, according to Real Clear Politics.

French has remained a critic of Trump's nomination even after saying in recent days that he is not the person who should mount a conservative challenge to him. French had been courted to run by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol
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